MEET ALLISON TERRACIO
RICHLAND COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBER
DISTRICT 5
Allison Terracio represents Richland County Council District 5, which includes St. Andrews/Skyland, The Vista, Five Points, Shandon, Hollywood-Rose Hill, Wales Garden, Rosewood/South Kilbourne, MLK (King) Park, and a portion of Olympia.
She is mom to Van, wife to Nate, and has spent the past eight years working as an organizer for Planned Parenthood, a trainer for progressive candidates, and a campaign professional who seeks to improve the lives of South Carolinians through electoral and legislative change.
Her work on the Richland County Council has reflected her cooperative approach to local government and her strong values around community care. She has served on the COMET Board of Directors since 2020, currently serving as Board Chair. She has chaired the Development and Services Committee, shepherding through an ordinance to hold ‘absentee’ landlords accountable for nuisance behaviors and conditions of their properties.
She has chaired the Affordable Housing Ad Hoc committee, securing $4 million for sustainable investment in improving the quality and quantity of available and affordable homes.
Allison sees her work as being responsive to community needs. While many constituent requests revolve around filling potholes and dealing with trash issues, sometimes ordinances need to be created or amended.
After passing the Land Development Code, which included the option for Neighborhood Character Overlays, she took action to pass an overlay for unincorporated Olympia.
While portions of the historic mill villages have been protected by a City of Columbia overlay for years, it was only this action that protected these historic homes and the style of the neighborhood, preserving a distinctive look and feel of this area for the future.
An active member of Council, Allison serves on the Rules and Appointments Committee, is a Transitions Board member, a council liaison to LRADAC, the Jim Hamilton-Owens Field Airport Commission, the River Alliance, and the City of Columbia. She served as liaison to Richland Library from 2019 to 2025. She also serves on the Fire Advisory Committee and City Center Partnership.
Allison is originally from Trenton, Ky., population 400, give or take. She attended Centre College, where she met Nate, and they bonded over their shared love of both chemistry and the arts. Right after college, she and Nate moved to Brooklyn, where she worked for The Bank of New York (now BNY), where she worked with Asset Backed Securities and Municipal Bonds.
After experiencing 9/11 in NYC, Allison began the study and practice of yoga. She felt passionately that she should take this practice back home to Kentucky. She bought an existing yoga studio and quickly learned the power of community. She was constantly in awe of the relationships that blossomed and grew from offering a ‘third space’, a space that was not just work or home.
During her pregnancy, labor, and delivery, she was supported by a doula, a woman who ‘mothers the mother’ in childbirth. This experience led her to learn more about the status of maternal and infant outcomes in the United States and to become a doula for other women herself.
In the fall of 2016, her family moved to Nate's hometown of Columbia, where she was called to get deeply involved in building community through meeting neighbors and organizing for progressive causes. She was inspired to run for County Council after seeing local governments step up to protect our environment and fill needs unmet at the state and federal levels.